29::009 Directions in Modern Physics: COURSE DESCRIPTION

Spring Semester 1999

Instructor: Prof. Yannick Meurice

The course ``Directions in Modern Physics'' is intended to provide an elementary introduction to recent exciting developments having occurred in physics. The topics that will be discussed are usually studied after a few years in graduate school because they require a lot preliminary training in order to be mastered. For a physicist, mastering a subject means that you are able to perform calculations according to definite procedures. However, if one relaxes this requirement, I mean if at the end you will not be asked to carry through quantitative evaluations, it is possible to communicate the intellectual excitement of new discoveries to a larger audience then the one of experienced physicists.

The course will be taught in such a way that it can be followed by students having a very minimal mathematical background. I shall assume that the students are familiar with the following topics: addition and multiplication, solution of a linear equation ax+b=c, coordinates of a vector, angles, graph of a function (e.g f(x)=x^2) and powers of 10. Sometimes, more advanced notions will be necessary, but they will be introduced during the lecture. The main textbooks used (see syllabus) are based on public lectures given by people who are considered as leaders in their field and which are intended to a non-specialist audience.

The courses has two parts:

  1. Determinism, Chance and Chaos
  2. The Origin of the Universe According to Einstein's Theory of Gravitation.
Before discussing each theme in more detail, we briefly explain how they are related historically and what are the name of the subfields of physics related to them.

Determinism, Chance and Chaos

The Origin of the Universe According to Einstein's Theory of Gravitation